Lots of different things make up a hero, and as such, you get different kinds of hero.

There are the 'larger than life' characters like Superman, who defeat all foes in a seemingly never-ending supply of victories. And there are the heroes who are, in thier own many ways, more impressive. Characters like Indiana Jones, who gets captured, tortured and either shot or stabbed before he can even come close to beating the bad guys to the punch. People like the soldiers who fight our wars in the world; they don't march tirelessly towards the enemy, soaking up bullets like they're made of steel, but through tactics and determination, they are more heroic than any Superman.

That's because they have flaws, they're human, they aren't enhanced by the power of Earth's yellow sun. They can die, they can bleed, and they probably don't even think of themselves as heroes. Like the character in Amon Amarth's song, The Hero. He says that 'The blade I swing is black as night, black as my souless heart', but later, 'But there I was, on battleground - until I felt the jaws of death cut into my fles - defending old and weak. But I, did not retreat'.

It's such a dichotomy of good/evil, or perceptions thereof, that make the best heroes the best heroes. Batman uses brutal scare tactics, our soldiers are highly trained killing machines and one of the most popular sci-fi heroes, Malcolm Reynolds, shoots a lawman in cold blood in the first episode.

But when you think about it, Batman's fighting the Joker, the soldiers are fighting an unpredictable enemy, and the lawman was Alliance. So really - you have to think about every damn thing when you're coming up with a hero. Don't just go Superman. Make them flawed, give them a mean streak. They're more human that way, like the soldiers.

I just finished Terry Pratchett's 'Nation', about twenty minute ago. I've been weeping slow and steady tears of joy for about twice that long. It was the most stunningly beautiful piece of writing I've ever had the outright honour to bear witness to.

So I treated my attack of Pratchett's majesty induced girly crying the way any sensible, sane, wannabeauthour Englishman would. I got my ass out of bed, went to make a cup of tea, then came on here and blogged about my new quest. It's epic, so hold your breath;

One day, I am going to be half the writer he is

Updates of various flavours;

-Lengthy Ballad Of Tom Kelly-
Some progress has been made on the re-write, but with writers block its been really slow going and hasn't got that far. What work has been done though, is of a high standard. The story now begins days before the outbreak.

-Infinate Dreams-
A new project, written from the perspective of a female lead character - so it's really worrying for me, in case I make the character unbelieveable. Not wanting to give anything away, I'll just say that it's a modern/urban fantasy with a heavy influence from the mythologies of various religions, set in a fictional small English town. It should speak mostly to the Buffy and Harry Potter generations, assuming they've grown up a bit.

-Scimitar-
I'm no longer writing for Scimitar. Despite being a founding member and 50% of the writing team, the musical direction of thrashy power metal we always had for the band is apparently not good enough anymore. Scimitar's going Black Metal, and frankly I wouldn't want to be involved with such a project anyway. I'm looking into joining other bands, or starting up a new band under the name of Mägiä, Mägesterium or Semiäutomägic, which could go in two directions; a metal band with folk/blues influences from keyboards, violin and harmonica, or the premise of metal band sent back in time, playing metal covers and original songs but on entirely acoustic instrumentation.

-School/Work/Wacken/Gaming-
Rather than go to University, I'll be taking an Open University course in Creative Writing, during a gap year. This may help me get into Uni in the future, or be just as useful on its own. Soon I'll be going to Wacken festival in Germany, after which I'll be looking for a job to pass the time and bring in some much needed funds. During this time I'll also be playing a lot of games online. Good job I'm signed up to Xbox live for a year. I've also started setting up for online PC gaming with some friends. I'm going to become uber-geek.

You know that feeling.

You sit down in front of an old project and look at it for a while, getting all excited about carrying it on...then it comes to looking at that point where the last paragraph you wrote ends, or where you made the last brush stroke...and you just stop dead.

So I tried reading through plans I've had brewing for older project revivals, and when it comes to writing those, I freeze too.

I'm forced to draw the conclusion that I have writer's block again. It has been some time, I must admit. Usually when this happens I leave DA for a while, crawl up into a hermit-hidey-hole and wait it out, so if nobody hears from me for a while, I've gone on a spiritual retreat to renew my inspiration glands

Hopefully I'll get the new Alestorm album and it'll inspire me to do something...piratey, again.

DAYS LATER
I'm not having a good week to be honest. My Xbox has Red-Ringed and now my USB has turned on me too. It's destroyed nearly two years of work, with the zombie story. Destroyed. Anihilated. Corrupted, rotted, broken, beaten and everything else. Mutilated. That's the real copy I work on AND THE SMEGGING BACKUP FILE.

So, I'm starting to do something I'd only previously given very little thought to.
I'm starting it again. Using about 100 pages of the original story as a guide, I'm going to begin a complete re-write. New stories, new interests, new angles, same characters, same setting, same overall tale. More blood, more horror, more fun

I'm still pissed that my USB drive killed it.

Hey.
Short. Sweet. Unlike me.

Working half on new and lame projects, half on Kelly's story. Just checking in

Also, been watching an unholy ammount of Buffy, after getting a boxset of Buffy and Angel for christmas. Watched season 1 in a day, breaking for sleep and food. Season 2 lasted a week, and season 3 is ongoing...